Used estate car

[Roobot]

We are moving back to the UK soon with a small person in tow (she will be 17 months by then), and we will have to buy a car. Main criteria are: must be as new as we can afford (have had a few years of astronomical repairs to 12 yr old car); be as economical to run as possible (including MPG, insurance, tax, tyres etc); be spacious- currently have one car seat and hopefully will be ttc soon so will need 2.
We want an estate as we will be making at least 4-5 trips to scotland per year, and will need to take all associated baby stuff... I am happy to consider an SUV, and willing to consider an MPV. Thanks :)

oops- meant to add, our budget will be approx 10k!

Skoda Octavia Estate, TDi.

We look at economical estate cars every 3 or 4 years, and always get an Octavia (we don't need to replace them every 4 years, they are great, but DH gets a company car and it gets replaced that often). Lots of space, lots of car for the money, economic on fuel etc, etc

You could probably get one that is 3 years old or so for £10K I think.

Dacia Duster - buy one brand new, put the extra grand in the bank.

Thanks BikeRunSki! The octavia is actually top of our list... wanted to make sure we weren't overlooking anything! Hoping we might be able to bung a couple of k extra to get even newer, but 10k seems likeliest! WMittens, off to look up a dacia duster... have never heard of those!

My 10 year old Mk1 Octavia is solid and reliable, but I didn't get the economical model. Loads of boot space, the rear seats don't have much leg room, but I believe the newer Octavias are better.

VW Passat would fit the bill, too, I think.

Always a good idea to pick a petrol model over a diesel.

The diesel cars cost a lot more and have much higher miles as a rule. For example, this...

www.usedcarexpert.co.uk/buy/skoda/octavia/d-728/id-9535137/

Vs this...

www.usedcarexpert.co.uk/buy/skoda/octavia/d-21698/id-9398432/

The latter car is a highly reliable and economical 1.6 petrol. It's done about half the mileage.

You'll never get the 2 grand difference back through better economy - diesel is very expensive compared to petrol and, even worse, diesel cars have all the reliability issues caused by emissions kit that petrols don't have. They tend to be less reliable which is the exact opposite of the way most people see them.

Always go petrol if you can.

Hope this helps -

Dave

Dacia Logan mcv. Brand new seven grand estate car. We have the Sandero which is their standard hatchback version and we love it. 3 car seats across the back easy and cheap tax and excellent fuel economy.

3 year old skoda Octavia estate. People trade them in at that stage just as they come out of warranty and they get a new one. My sil just got a 3 year old one of these in perfect condition for around 10k.